Nathan Roth - February 4, 1983
Family
How large was your family?
There was eight of us. Sister was the oldest, I was the youngest.
Eight children?
Four brothers, four sisters, father, mother. That was the family uh, the basic family.
Grandparents?
I had a grandfather who lived in the house. As far as I can remember--I never remember a grandmother or the other grandfather. The grandfather, as far as I can remember, was an invalid who lived in our house. Lived in the main room, where we called the main room. His bed was over there and uh, in the morning when I got up, he was sitting in his tallit doing his shacharit by himself. And uh, as a kid, I remember trying to play hooky from cheder, so I can stay and have his breakfast with him. I, I played sick so I could stay with my grandfather and enjoy uh, watching him davenen and, and uh, having his breakfast that my mother made--a special soup for him. It was usually a, a, a soup, it was called an eingebrente soup. I don't know what the equivalent would be here. Uh, it's, it just--enjoyed being with him. Uh, he uh, he taught me a lot of things. Talked to me all of the time. I helped him go. At that time we didn't have, we didn't have a bathroom in the house yet, it was right at the end of the veranda. I helped him go to the bathroom, after the breakfast and conducted him. It was just very pleasant memories.
Was he alive when the, um, when the Nazis came?
I was already in Budapest and he was still alive. When I came back, I found out that about four days before the Nazis came for the round up, he died. He was buried at the Bereznyy Cemetery. I am not sure but I don't think there was time to erect a, a, a, a, a ???, a, a grave marker. So even if I went back today, I am not sure if I could find out where he was buried, because it was just a few days before, before we were uh, taken away that he died. Very old man, he must have been, my God, he must have been ninety, if he was a day.
How large was the rest of the family, extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins?
Ok, uh, the oldest sister, Ettiu. Esther had three children, one survived; he is now in Israel.Uh, Ari that's...
Do you wanna show the picture?
...that's him right here, he hid his family through the war in bunkers, in Slovakia. His whole family, three children and another family survived by going into the forest, giving money for some peasants to hide them, bring them food and they survived the whole war. And right after the war they went to Israel, where all three children flourished. And uh, now they have um, they have an extended family over there, there are one--one of his children has got nine children, one has two and the other one has two. So, that's eleven, that's thirteen children. And I just attended a wedding of the first of his grandchildren, of the one has already married before, which I did not attend. But I just attended a wedding of the first of his children. And this is a wedding of the family when they were still living in Slovakia, in the beginning where they had to wear the stars and this is the wedding I just attended.
Quite a contrast, what about the rest of your brothers and sisters?
Uh, that's the brother that's two uh, there's another sister, can I put this up here?
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn